The present invention relates to a method and a device for the treatment of printed circuit boards with process solutions.
Devices and methods for a continual treating of outer surfaces of printed circuit boards of the type under discussion have been known.
The treatment of the printed circuit boards with various process solutions is carried out to provide a so-called basis material, which can be then copper-coated, by applying to the boards or plates suitable process solutions, such as cleaning agents, rinsing solutions, etching solutions, neutralizing solutions in chemical baths to form electrically-conductive paths on the plates and in case of the drilled plates to make them through-contacting.
The application of the process solutions is carried out, on the one hand, by means of an immersion treatment, in which boards or plates are suspended on the frame advanced by means of any suitable transporting device and immersed into a container filled with a respective treatment solution, and then transported from one container to another. This method, however has required a great deal of space for the whole treatment device. Making the boards or plates through contacting by this conventional technique has been usually non-satisfactory and time-consuming.
On the other hand, the application of process solutions by spraying them onto the printed circuit boards has been normally utilized mainly for rinsing and was not suitable for agressive process solutions because these solutions are smoke-screened when a required spraying pressure is applied to the boards being treated and this treatment was therefore not satisfactory. Moreover, making the boards or plates through-contacting has not been possible when conventional spraying techniques were utilized.